Winner of the 1991 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, In The Shadow Of The Stars and National Emmy Award for Dialogues With Madwomen, (both with Allie Light), was born in Poland, raised and educated in Israel and has a B.A. in Motion Pictures from UCLA. He works in fiction and documentary film as producer, director and editor with over 150 films to his credit, mostly made for TV. He was the filmmaker of Poland, Changing World (Emmy nomination) and USA Poetry, (with Richard Moore & Philip Greene) 12 half-hour films about modern poets NET.

His directorial work includes Going International (six films about working abroad, producers: Copeland-Griggs) and We Are Driven (Japanese production in the U.S.; Frontline, PBS). Among his editing credits: Battle of Westlands (Columbia Dupont & Peabody Awards); Death and Dying, Bioethics Series, KTCA-TV, St. Paul (Columbia-Dupont Award); Las Madres (Oscar nomination) and Three Warriors (United Artists release).

With his partner Allie Light, he has also produced and directed Mitsuye and Nellie; Visions of Paradise (five half hour films about contemporary American folk artists); Shakespeare’s Children (director); Rachel’s Daughters (HBO); Blind Spot, Murder by Women; Children and Asthma and Good Food/ Bad Food, Obesity in American Children (programs about children’s health and the environment); An Iraqi Lullaby and The Sermons of Sister Jane, Believing the Unbelievable. Irving was founder and former head of the KQED-TV film unit and former manager of Saul Zaentz Production Company.

During his tenure with Zaentz, Saraf produced a score of films and was post-production supervisor of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. For many years he taught film production at San Francisco State University. An interview with Irving appears in Documentary Filmmakers Speak by Liz Stubbs (Allworth Press, 2002). Irving is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Allie Light

Allie Light, winner of the 1991 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and the 1994 National Emmy Award for best interview program, writes, directs and produces documentary films with her partner, Irving Saraf.

Her credits include: Rachel’s Daughters: Searching for the Causes of Breast Cancer (HBO), Dialogues With Madwomen, (Emmy Award; Freedom of Expression Award, Sundance Film Festival); In The Shadow Of The Stars, (Academy Award); Mitsuye and Nellie, Asian American Poets; Visions of Paradise (five films about folk artists); Shakespeare’s Children (produced by Kate Kline May); Blind Spot: Murder by Women; Children and Asthma and Good Food, Bad Food, Obesity in American Children (programs about children’s health and the environment); An Iraqi Lullaby and The Sermons of Sister Jane, Believing the Unbelievable. Allie has published a book of poems, The Glittering Cave and edited an anthology of women’s writings, Poetry From Violence.

Her essays appear in publications about women. Ms. Light lectured in film at City College of San Francisco and, for ten years, in the Women Studies Program at San Francisco State University. Her life story appears in On Women Turning 50, Celebrating Mid-Life Discoveries, by Cathleen Rountree (Harper/Collins, 1993), and her interview is included in Film Fatales: Independent Women Directors, by Judith M. Redding & Victoria A. Brownworth (Seal Press, 1997).

An interview with Allie appears in Documentary Filmmakers Speak by Liz Stubbs (Allworth Press, 2002). Allie has served on the Media Advisory Panel for the National Endowment for the Arts and is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

Carol Monpere

Carol Monpere is a playwright and screenwriter, and an award winning producer and director of documentary films. Her films include: The Battle of Westlands, a PBS documentary about the fight over water between small farmers and corporate-managed agriculture giants in California. The film was the winner of a National Emmy, a George Foster Peabody Award and the duPont/Columbia University Award, Silver Baton; Fragile Mountain, PBS Nova series and Pink Lightning, (Emmy nomination) an original screenplay for Fox Cable, which she wrote and directed. Her writing credits include: Fog City and Coming Attractions, original screenplays for Sony/Columbia Pictures; In The Combat Zone, Universal, and Midnight Soldier, Paramount. Her adaptations include The Mouse and His Child, animated feature, winner of International Children’s Film Award; The Borrowers, for Hallmark Hall of Fame and Mother’s Night Out, for Disney. Her recent stage work (2004) was All The Pieces, an evening of short works on the ages of women, which she produced off Broadway. Carol’s last work was The Sermons of Sister Jane, co-produced and directed with Allie Light and Irving Saraf. She died from breast cancer in 2006.

Sister Jane Kelly

Sister Jane Kelly is the whistle-blowing nun who broke the story of the financial and sexual shenanigans in the Santa Rosa Diocese (and, as was subsequently discovered, in the Catholic Church nationwide). Her book, Taught to Believe the Unbelievable, tells the story of how Sister Jane Kelly contested Church leaders efforts to shield the sexual and fiscal misconduct of its priests. Rather than collude in the cover-up, she went to the press, at great risk to her reputation and her relationship to the Church she had served for fifty-five years. When newspaper headlines at last broke the news, Sister Jane’s courageous actions reveal how this crisis of faith ultimately became an opportunity to revitalize the Church’s most fundamental spiritual teachings. Through her amazing story, she reminds every reader, regardless of their faith, that the call of one’s own heart and conscience supersedes all externally imposed authority. Sister Jane Kelly, P.B.V.M., holds a Masters in Theology and is the recipient of the Woman of Distinction Award from Soroptimists International, Woman of Consequence Award from Church Women United, and the Sister Jane Kelly Woman of Integrity award created in her honor by the National Woman's Caucus. Her new book is X Rated Nun: Woman of Integrity.